Patent Law grade came today. It's a satisfactory grade (my sister Emily will say my expectations/stanndards are too high.) On the plus side, my GPA climbed just a touch bit higher, which should keep me in the top 15%. On the downside, it didn't climb enough to bump me into the top 10% or to comfortably keep me in the top 15% at the end of 2008.

One issue with this exam, of course, is that it was a week-long take-home. I got a little complacent and did little to no prep before getting it. That meant that while I put a huge amount of time into it, it was pretty inefficient time, because I was reviewing the material at the same time. That's certainly a pattern I will have to avoid in the future.

The other problem, of course, is that I was doing that on a shortened schedule. I had to pick up the exam on Wednesday, December 6. My Evidence exam was on Saturday, December 9. I didn't start looking at Patent Law until around 5 PM on December 9, with the exam to be turned in on December 13. I didn't start working on it in earnest until after I got moving on Sunday, December 10, after my Evidence final hangover. In short, I didn't play it well. I think I'll accept the grade.

Pass and move on, as Stan likes to say.

Another reason you may not have done as well as you expected is that there were a number of practicing patent agents in the class. The course was primarily a review for us and the essays were really geared towards things that can only be truly learned from practice, especially the claim construction oriented essay. You had to argue about the minutia of language that would seem idiotic unless you had spent an entire summer or more doing the same thing.

I should be clear. I didn't necessarily do worse than I expected; I may have to re-read what I wrote... I had no idea what to expect. I knew that I put a lot of time into it, but I assumed others would, too. Of course, having practicing patent agents in the class couldn't help.

I'd forgotten all about the claim construction. Heh.

I was probably projecting with my earlier comment. To paraphrase a patent law concept: when it comes to law school expectations, I'm my own lexicographer. Satisfactory = unsatisfactory, good = satisfactory, excellent = good and a cali award = mission accomplished.

I've just about given up on CALIs. There's little more frustrating to keep going and looking for a new list, only to have it come to see the same names. I've come to settle on the "excellent = mission accomplished" curve.

In this particular instance, I decided to put the Patent Law exam off until after Evidence ended. Only, after Evidence, I couldn't summon any attention. I then proceeded to oversleep on Sunday. Suddenly, I found myself working on the exam from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday morning with two full workdays in between. I worked for 12 straight hours on the third essay, from 6 PM until 6 AM on the morning of the 13th, in my office at work. I didn't get a chance to proof anything.

All of which is to say, I was sort of expecting the worst. Or, at least bad enough to knock me out of the top 15%. And so, satisfaction only came because the grade was the minimum level to keep me there with my extrapolated numbers. As it happened, I could have gone a grade lower. But I'm very glad that didn't happen.